Now is the time…… To Be Known By Him

I have loved you with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31:3

Have you ever felt that you really wanted to get to know someone; to know them as a friend, but you couldn’t get close? I have, and it is very frustrating.

Perhaps most of us have had times in our lives when we don’t want people close to us in case they see what we are really like. We think that if they do, they won’t like us any more, so we hide or we build walls of protection around ourselves to keep people at a distance. We seem to conveniently forget that it’s okay to be human, and that every single person is flawed in some way. Not one of us are perfect, it’s just not possible. Only Jesus was without sin. We also forget that no matter how good our mask, someone will eventually see through it.

Recently a friend I have known for quite a long time came to stay with us. We have never been able to spend much time together in the past so it was a great joy to have this time to really get to know her. When she left I felt like I had a new sister. It needed our spending that time together for us to really get to know each other. It was truly a lovely gift.

Sometimes we hide from God, or at least we don’t try to get close to him, which is what he desires more than anything else. He speaks of his church, the body of Christ, as being “his bride”; that makes him the bridegroom, and in such a picture there is the expectation of intimate relationship. God wants us to know him and grow in our understanding of him. To do that requires spending time with him, learning from him through his word, the Bible, and talking to him. A marriage does not develop properly if there is no intimacy and no sharing of hopes, dreams and desires. It never will become what it should be without communication about many things.

God knows us very intimately because he created us (Psalm 139:14), but he wants us to share our hurts, our hopes, dreams and our struggles with him. He wants us to be real with him. He also wants us to follow his instructions for life because they are what will satisfy us and bring us safely and victoriously through our lives. To do this will at times be a struggle because we feel unworthy or unclean, and we feel like he won’t want to be bothered with us. That is a ploy of the enemy to keep us away from God when we need him most. At times like these we need to press through and come boldly before his throne of grace to obtain mercy, comfort, counsel, strength, direction – whatever we need at the time. He wants to have input into our lives. We can’t, and don’t have to, do life alone. Our work for him needs to include him. Apart from anything else I don’t want to stand before him at the judgment seat only to have him say to me, “Depart from me…… I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:23).

Come before your Saviour today and allow yourself to be known by him (warts and all). When you receive his unconditional love, it will help you to allow yourself to be known by others too.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for your constant and unconditional love and acceptance of me. Help me to walk with you and share my life with you in a way that is real. Amen